I've been learning
drums for about 10 months now without a drum instructor other than websites,
a few videos, and a few books. I practice usually 3-4 hours daily, sometimes
more, sometimes less.

Some tips for the
do-it-yourself drummers...

Starting off, learn Rudiments!

Make sure you practice everything
with both hands!

Spend atleast 30-45 minutes a day
on paradiddles (singles and doubles, doubles are easier if you count them
in 3/4), and double stroke rolls, starting slow and speeding up. Within
a month or 2, they'll sound like ear candy!

Also practice double strokes and paradiddles
on the kick and LEFT FOOT even if you dont have double bass...

Here's a few practice
techniques I taught myself for fills...

Practice single strokes (LRLR) (quarter
notes), from snare drum to your floor tom, hitting the the snare w/ left
hand on the 1 beat on 4/4 time, and each other stroke (2-R,3-L,4-R) on
the floor tom and repeat. Practice this between snare and all toms. Then
start the same thing hitting the the floor tom w/ right hand on the 1 beat
on 4/4 time, and each other stroke (2-L,3-R,4-L) on the floor tom so the
practice is totally reversed.

THEN practice with 6/8 doing 6 strokes
LRL RLR hitting the first note (left hand) on the snare and the other 5
on the floor tom. Then reverse.

Practice until you are comfortable
with the strokes and your hands aren't "tripping" over each other.
Once comfortable try using fills more often where you usually wouldn't
use them.

This excercise will get your hands
and mind acquainted with: Single strokes, triplet fills, single stroke
fills, ability to easily reach and 'grasp' hits, starting on the 'right'
hand (left or right) so you'll end up where you need.

Many drummers talk about 'not crossing
hands' and "terretorial rights" but if you watch the best drummers,
this concept is often broken. Also try this method between hihats and snare
and hihats and your toms.

Fact is it is easier to pull off quicker
strokes with 2 hands rather than one hand, and if you are doing different
rhythmic (singles, doubles, and tripets) strokes on toms you are gonna
have to know where to start and where you'll end...

If you want to become
more familiar with rhythm, learn some afro-cuban and latin, and get yourself
a book and cheap cowbell to start. (I have a $10 Pearl Primero 6"
cowbell with a $8 Gibraltar bass drum mount for the cowbell; less than
$20 setup from www.musiciansfriend.com)

For independance
building I just started The New Breed by Gary Chester ($10). The book is
great on looking at what your muscle memory is familiar with and what you
need to work on. Also will increase your music reading ability (beginners),
and increase your creativity.

One last practice
tip is for double stroke rolls and using it in fills... Start with a double
stroke roll on the snare, whatever speed is comfortable to you, then move
the roll to hi hat (closed) and back to snare, then to high tom and back.
Try keeping the double strokes constant between drums and cymbals. Get
creative and switch up from singles to doubles, flams, whatever.

THEN start the excercise
with the opposite hand, (RRLLRRLL, then to LLRRLLRR). Always keep in count.

First, get to know
your bass foot, use it alot at first and get a beat that uses it alot and
fast and play it alot. Then learn off beats - that's where when you hit
the high hat you have a snare or bass hit in between the high hat beats
either once or more -and also learn your fills really good; they're important
for speed. Always hit the bass or snare when you hit a symbol. E-mail me
if you need any more help ive been playing for five years.

I have been playing
for about 12 years. I am a self taught drummer, which is cool because it's
allowed me to develop my own style. Unfortunately, not having a teacher
to guide and correct me, has hindered my progress somewhat. Only a few
months ago did it actually occur to me that I needed to learn rudiments.
So I started learning them, playing to my metronome (another VITAL tool
I should have invested in years ago), starting off slowly, and gradually
turning it up a notch or two. The only problem is that I found it quite
irritating to get to a certain tempo, stopping, turning the tempo up, starting
again etc...

So I programmed a
click for myself using Cubase. I'm sure any other studio program would
work just as well. I programmed a whole line of quarter notes ad infinitum.
Then I started working on the tempo's. It starts at a comfortable 60 bpm,
and then I progammed it so that every 30 seconds it goes up 2 bpm, so I
don't need to stop. I can just carry on playing along. This goes on for
a half hour. I usually do this exercise twice, mixing up 8ths, and 16ths,
mixing up different rudiments. Right now I'm working on paradiddles and
it's really helping a lot. It's a killer exercise and after doing it even
once, my hands are SO supple. Nice for warming up and anything else. I've
burned in onto a cd so I can use it anywhere; in the bandroom with headphones
on behind the drums, or at home through the stereo, in the car during my
lunch break (the steering wheel or dash board also make GREAT surfaces
for practice). Try it!

This practice helps
woth rolls a lot. it goes like this: Now all the letters are r = non-accented
right hand l = non-accented left hand caped letters are accented notes.
Start this exercice slow, at around 80 BPM then start incrising untill
u get to al lest 144 BPM or if u can go faster, i say to gfi.

Of course, rudiments
are important in order to keep your technique up to par, but i found that
just jamming by yourself is the perfect way to come up with some wicked
grooves. I play funk drumming, so i just love messing around setting up
grooves, wacking in loads of ghost notes on the snare, playing really cool
stuff on the bass and going nuts on the hi hat and ride! This really does
help build up your confidence cause it makes you feel that you can do some
really cool stuff live, and not mess it up! Also, when practising, try
and really push yourself over your limit, thats the only way to get better,
its just the little things like for example, i try and do alot of fast
funky stuff on the bass drum, but still only using a single pedal.

If your in a band,
jam your songs just by yourself, don't ever feel restrained because your
bassist isn't there etc. By doing so, you won't feel the need to hold back,
meaning you'll have the freedom to drift out of time and try more stuff
to spice up the groove or come up with more fills! When you are with your
band, try and listen to what the song needs, most drummers have always
been told that all the drummer does is keep time. When in fact the drummer
is there to keep the time, keep everybody together and to KEEP THE GROOVE!
Our job as drummers is to make sure everybody in the audience is tapping
their foot, clapping, jumping or dancing to the beat and we must do whatever
it takes in order to do so!

Hope this helps!

Feel free to visit
my bands website, we are hopfully recording a new album soon which will
have alot of my funk drumming in it. :-)

_[][]_
! ( ) !

www.inside-information.net

Chris J

I spend a lot of
time on the computer, doing homework, looking up articles and other such
things. Since my drumset is downstairs and my computer is upstairs, I can't
practice and play drums at the same time. What I've done is bought a small
pad (the smallest + cheapest you can find) and a cheap pair of sticks and
I've left them up in my room. While I'm reading somethign or working on
homework, I'll pull up the rudiments from this site and just start practicing
them. You can basically do this when you doing anything. Bring this pad
and sticks everywhere. You can always practice rudiments. Come up with
your own practice routines. There are books that are filled with just rudiments,
you can pick one up and start playing those as well. No matter where you
go, you can always be thinking about the drums.

Another thing I try
to do is when I'm listening to music, I try to find out what it's time
signature is by listening to it. I find I can do this with a band that
tends to use odd time signitures (Tool comes to mind.) Try and find the
time, and then maybe think about how you would handle that time signature
with that song. Write it down, and then practice it at home. You shouldn't
always play in 4/4. It gets quite repetitive.

1. If it is not possible
for you to practice on a real drum set very often, here is a usefull tip:
turn your mouse pad upside down, hence getting something very similair
to an electric drum pad with very realistic bounce and no loud tones at
all.

I FIND WHEN PLAYING
A TECHNICAL BEAT IT SOUNDS SO MUCH BETTER IF YOU VIBRATE YOUR STICKS ON
THE HEAD SO IT MAKES THAT FAST REPETITIVE MILLATRY STYLE SOUND,IT SOUNDS
AWESOME ON ALL THE DRUMS. AND CHANGE THE TEMPO IN FILLS, EG. START A MODERATELY
FAST FILL AND NEAR TO THE END LET IT DRAG(SLOW DOWN)

OH AND BY THE WAY
YOU CAN'T TEACH DRUMMING YOU EITHER HAVE IT OR YOU DON'T

My bass player and
I are currently in between guitar players, and with our fusion/prog rock
band currently on hold we've been hitting the woodshed together to stay
in top form between auditions.I might play a series of paradiddles, ratamacues,
whatever- all around the kit and he'll "mirror" me with a riff
of his own, and vice versa. The object is to challenge each other as much
as possible. We've worked out some pretty great rhythmic patterns this
way. Sometimes it gets downright wild! We've even recorded some to use
for future original material. We're getting pretty tight as a result and
it's a great way to stay in shape too! We all know how important it is
to keep the rhythm section solid in any band, so I would recommend this
to anyone out there. And so we've turned a temporary disadvantage into
a good thing! Happy Drummin'

If you are already
a professional (in that you get paid to play frequently) but want to tighten
up, seriously consider playing with a band that uses sequenced material.
Go to your local music store and ask the employees about some of the bands
around town. A lot of smaller stores will consist of salesmen who are also
professional musicians. See if any of them play or know people who play
with bands who use sequenced material. Usually, these bands will be duos
or trios that also use larger bands for bigger shows. They usually play
the sequences off of floppy disks or Mini Discs. You may think playing
along with sequenced material is cheesy, but from my experience, the folks
I play with usually sequence the cover songs on their own and are incredible
musicians that just happen to be forced by the market to have a bigger
sound than two or three folks can offer, or play in venues that require
a perfect performance every time (like 5 star hotels). I have been playing
sequenced material for about 10 years, and even though I never practice
chops and stuff, I haven't been able to practice due to the fact that I
am always playing gigs- the drumset never leaves the car. I am so tight
as a result that I would feel confident playing with anyone. It also teaches
you to concentrate on the groove. The main complement I get and the reason
I get hired is because the singer/guitarist/whatever never has to "look
back" at me for cues, or worse, mistakes. I tell people that if they
forget I'm there, I must be doing something right. And only overplay if
you can afford to make your own educational DVDs, or Dream Theater needs
a temp.

i have been playing
the drum kit for about 4 months, before i got my kit i played on a practice
pad for 4 years. Im not going to tell you what to do, personally what i
think works best is go to alot of concerts and make friends with other
drummers and musicians. Along the way you will pick up different kinds
of rythm from all different people.. variety is way better then playing
one type of genre of music..

I love playing with
click tracks and/or my favorite cd's. I try to spend at least an hour a
day with the'ol practice pad grooving to funk,latin jazz, soul, metal,
whatever...I practice my rudiments using the cd's as a "metronome".
It's a challenge to "fit" any given rudiment(s) into the rhythmic
structure while maintaining the groove.It's really helped me play better
in the pocket as well as improving my solo skills. I'm ready to try the
same method with my double bass. I gig quite a bit, but I will never forego
the rudiments. Sounds simple, but it really works for me!

Michelle Zito

There is such a high
I get when I play drums!!! I Love It!! First thing... Enjoy what you are
doing. Music is a feeling; it should be a good feeling. Second thing...
get with people who inspire you to push yourself. Also, when you practice..
a metronome is very essential for developing accuracy. But don't stop there!!
Try covering up the click to where you can't hear it, then try laying back
to where you feel like you are sitting in a big chair that you sink down
in. This is where you hear more of the click, only you're more on the underside
of it. Then try getting on the top side of the click. With this, it tends
to give a more exciting feel to it, but you will not be rushing. I've worked
with musicians who firmly feel that a click track will limit the feel.
I feel this is wrong. Because, with practice, one can create his/her own
feel by focusing on the click in the fashion described above. Also, if
you have an electronic metronome with a light, (a pendulume works great
in this application as well), set it to where you can only see the light,
not hear the 'click'. Think of a song you want to play. Get the song going
in your head. Set the appropriate tempo. Start into the song just like
you are playing the tune in a band. Occasionaly look over to see if you
are still with the click (or light in this respect). This will help develope
sensitivity and feel, as well as consistency of tempo.

And lastly, and I
feel perhaps the most important.. I believe the biggest misconception regarding
the drums is that it is often regarded as soley a rythme instrument. Drums
are musical instruments!!! These instruments are tuned and should be like
a chord. This applies with cymbals as well. When playing in a band.. try
approaching the song like you are having a conversation with your fellow
bandmates. In working together, the topic of discussion should be delivered
to the audience with clarity. Songs don't always have to have words to
have a profound message. The pocket is often what we as drummers concentrate
on. And this is the essence of our exsistence. But remember, it's playing
off of the musicians you're playing with that matters, too. Compliment
the music...Someone once said that it's not important how many notes one
plays, it's the notes one doesn't play that are the most profound!!

Make sure you have
a comfortable pair of drumsticks. Find a good, balanced pair of sticks.
ie. I use Zildjian hickory. Well made drumsticks can make a difference
in the sound your projecting from your set and even improve your playing
as well. I tend to use lighter sticks when playing jazz. Not only does
it help me with quick rolls and consistency but also helps contain the
tonality.

For the drummers
out there! ok you dont have to listen to me all you super amazing people
because im only 17 and half taught myself half actual teaching but what
i find helps is if you can find a peice of rubber say for instance a tire
or some sort and just flex out on the rubber with your sticks, practice
paradiddles etc... believe it does work, also dont over work yourself if
you do then you just get stressed tired and pissed off that you cant progress
you need time to reflect and think of how you can make that fill even better
than it already is. You can do it!!

Louis

For practicng stick
heights for marching show-band/drum-line I have found many useful tips.
First using a ruler and a permanent marker mark the proper height from
the butt of the stick up at the basis benchmark heights of 3,6,9, and 12-(or
whatever heights you need to practice. Then, whenever you are practicing
and would like to check your stick heights just pull out your stick,set
it down with the butt end on the drum,and check your stick on heights.
Next, another way you can practice stick heights that I have found to work
very successfully is you can tape tape onto a mirror at the different stick
heights and loo in the mirror to see if your stick heights are okay. I
hope these tips can help you too. Thanks for taking the time to read my
tips.

Here is a good warm
up, its basically adding a storke every group 2 groups of each.( small
letters indicate flam to the next consecutive letter)Do this with no breaks,
from beginning to end then switch hands.

DO all the strokes
at a constant tempo in 4/4 that way when you do hit the triplets and double
paradiddles it helps you with doing the 3 over 2 polyrythm, then add your
feet on top of this exercise doing the 3 over 2 polyrythm. It helps in
chops quite a bit when you get it quick

Danny

hi, ive only been
drumming for a couple of years now and i practice all the time, everywhere
i go im tapping. But i feel i just need help working with different patterns
on the snare, eg. getting the rolling sound while snapping in snare shots.
i find it difficult trying to learn from the book the different techniques
in snare practicing so i have turned my attention to anyones willing help.
i am on msn with the same addy declo03@aol.com your welcome to add me e.mails
would be greatly appreciated and would serve as a great help for me...
thanx alot

well, im peruvian
and here drumming its like something that doesn`t matter. Drums, sticks,
and cymbals are hard to get... believe me they are so expensive.

So, when i was 12
years old i get a chair with two pillows ans started practicing there...
i hear about rudiments since a year ago and i'm 21...believe drumming here
its so hard.

I practice paradiddles
double paradiddles triple, etc... rolls flams and other combination while
holding the clave pattern on left foot and make some rock grooves with
the right foot... that develops your independence and sense of humor...
try making groups of three, five or 7 16 notes on left foot while making
rock bass drum with the other... that`s pretty hard but fantastic

... think about polyrythms
they are quite interesting... develop them!!!!

Need a quick sizzle?
On a piece of duct tape about 3/4 of an inch long, tape 5 or so pennys
to it and attatch the tape to the bell of the ride cymbal. I Works and
sounds just like a cymbal with rivets in it.

Bad Ass Drummer

Just thank God for
giving you the gift of music and the power of rhythm.

monching

Here's what I do
to exercise my reading and transcription skills along with improving my
time: First I pick a song and memorize it, then I'll try to write out the
drum chart or a scratch road map for it. After that I'll find the tempo
for that song and set it on my drum machine. Then I'll play-along with
the song in my head locking in with the click. Of course there are many
ways you can do this exercise. I got this tip from Lorne Entress' book,
"Time and Drumming".

monfreex

The optimal way of
practicing, and this is the only way, is to practice everyday! And don''t
practice at things you already know how to do. Then practice loses its
meaning. Practice on what you feel that YOU need to get better at, or explore
new worlds of drumming. In example, if you are a rock drummer, explore
the world of jazz or latin or some other genre. And the most importend
thing in practicing: NEVER GIVE UP!! Great site mr. Tomás Howie,
keep up the good work!

In order to be a
good drummer you must have the Drummer's ear, or the musicians ear. This
is important because there is a pattern in drumming that you must pay close
attention to to discover the endless rhythmic possibilities there really
are. When you find this out you realize how many different styles of drumming
and different techniques you can incorporate into your music while jamming
with your guitarist or bassist. I have jammed with a few guitarist with
no sense of rhythm or timing and it's very frustrating for the most part.
If you havn't got a chance to listen to Danny Carey the drummer of TOOL,
then you are missing out, the man is a genius. He understands the rythmic
patters of drumming so perfect that i can listen to their CD's endless
amounts of times. He has inspired me so much as a drummer, i just can't
wait to get to his point in time with drumming. He defines drumming as
an instrument. I progress as a drummer by practicing and listening to other
drumers play in bands, but no other drummer inspires me more than Danney
Carey. Drumming has to be a passion for you when you play or think about
playing....you should just have that natural urge to play.

My Practice tip is;
find your weaknesses and spend as much time as you can to strengthen them.Spend
about 10 minutes jamming out because you should have fun with it...then
after you find your weakness repeat the steps over and over and over again
'till you get it down. Then when you're sleeping your brain will go over
the rudiments over and over agen in your head without you having to put
in much effort, and when you wake up the beats will be cake. To be a good
progressive drummer you should study the elements of jazz drumming. Once
you understand that, the puzzle pieces will slowly fit together. Another
thing you should work on is accenting and speed because when you put those
to together and add some jazz it's just amazing what you can do. Even though
i have much more of the puzzle and art of drumming to put together i don't
let it get me down because it takes time and copious amounts of practice
to be a precise drummer. So keep practicing and listening to drummers of
other bands and try to play along with thier beats. Because i find as a
drummer of my mind set, you can unlock many drumming technicalities just
by practicing on your own for vast amounts of time daily. So remember to
have fun with it, because if you don't you weren't meant to play drums...

hey, all beginners,
are you stuck with a drum set and have no lessons. that brings back my
memorys. if you want to do somthing to get you prepared for lesson or at
least up to speed with you foot hit you bass drum by eighth notes, keep
doing them until your shin hurts. then go on for another minute or so.
then go to 16th notes and 32 and if your good and bored 64th .and wahla
you got yourself a freggin fast foot. email me back at Drumlyne@yahoo.com
i wanna know if i made someones day happy.

okay heres another
one. working on fills. start 2 hits on each drum going from snare down.
keep going around and around until it gets SO freggin boring you feel like
burning your hands and jumping into a pool a gasoline. keep doing it. then
shut your eyes and do it. see if it sounds the same way. get faster and
faster every time you practice. until you can move around in your set jiff.
remeber start very slow and work your way up somtimes it can take many
moons to get yourself a good fill.

tip 2. I am in a
band, this is my 3rd. the last two i played pretty good rhythms, they held
the song together and sounded good. But! in my current band i decided to
just direct as much creativity and emotion into my drumming, you have to
be confident in your abilities but playing obscure rhythms and trying to
get away from the hi hat and ride cymbals a little bit, let the actual
drums do some of the talking. I love the way the songs sound and i find
i get a lot more compliments about my drumming - that makes me feel good.
Take drumming from The Mars Volta, Jon Theodore does some amazing stuff
that before i expanded my playing would never have thought of getting into
the songs. He's an amazing drummer in my opinion, everyone should hear
him play.

play rock music,
i can get away with experimenting obviously if you're in a band where the
drums take more of a back seat, rhythm holding place dont veer too far
away from the standard stuff you're required to play.

Someone experienced
please email me with any contradicitons for i am young and relatively inexperienced
(18).

Remove the toms and
cymbals from your kit when you practice and listen to your basic beats.
As a drummer in a loud rock band i found that i relied on cymbals and toms
to drown out my mistakes. by practicing without toms and cymbals my grooves
got stronger and more reliable. Now i am putting the toms back to work
on the fills and spills.

well ive been playing
for only about a year and a half now. i started with lessons for about
three months then went on my own. the main reason i started drummin was
after i hear slipknot i had to play like joey. so i started double bassin
after only three months of playing. now most people say start with the
basics first then build up indeed a good idea but for me i always would
do somthing complex while im at the beginer level. so i would recomend
go ahead and just start out trying to do hard things just keep a level
head on ya and dont get ahead of your self. and if double bassing soon
off never neglect or single footing dont use the double bass as an replacement
for single bassing. im 18 not i started playing drums when i was almost
17 im in a metal thrash band now and am considered the best drummer in
my school, because i went out there every day for hours and pacticed the
most impossible stuff till i through my sticks across the garage. so most
importantly be patient it takes a lot of time ive gorwn to realize that
it will be many many years till i get to were i want to be with drums.
sorry for the lengthy msg but also for some real incredible drummers the
double bass till the tendons in their legs damn near burst check out- thomas"thomen"
stauch- blind gaurdian-gene hoglan- straping young lad- and richard christy
iced earh also to see a drum solo video of richard in action (pretty amazing
stuff) go to www.richardchristy.com
its awsome HAPPY DRUMMING TO ALL MY DRUMMIN BROTHA'S -paul-drummer for-Megiddo-remeber
that name

Try practicing with
different size sticks than you would normally use while preforming. e.g.
if you use 5b's while playing live try 2b's while practicing you'll notice
the difference

You'll see yourself
playing faster and your stick control will improve.

Tom

Practice everything
starting with your weak hand. Set up your kit the opposite way you normally
do to increase ambidexterity. Practice the flam rudiments, because I find
that if you screw up while playing you can more easily make that mistake
sound good by knowing them. You will be amazed at how this happens. Also,
most importantly, practice good posture, relaxing and not thinking too
much as you play. Everything must just flow. Your mind can get in the way
of your music. Have a good time and make everything fun.

When practicing boring
exercises, I like to listen to some of my favourite CD's to inspire and
motivate me. Not only will the time fly, but you can also use it as a metronome
to play with.

Kosta Theodosis

I started drumming
in 1993 and I have been through two kits; first: a Pearl Kit with Sabian
cymbles and Pearl batterheads, and second: in 1999 a Maple Ludwig Pro Power.
Now on my kit I have two different toned crash cymbals, a splash, a ride,
and a chinese (all Ziljdian), double pedal, 5 toned (in row) cowbells,
and tiny chimes.

I did have a teacher
for 8 years and did grades, but i decided to teach myself and went more
into detail with faster riffs and faster songs. I now write my own Lyrics
and drum tabs together on professional paper. And Ihope to join in with
professional groups and help them out. (At the time now though I'm busy
studying for college and don't have enough time). But Iam interested in
joining a group. The main course of becoming professional is learning the
basics from a professional (e.g. Colin Woolway,Dave Hassel).

My tip for people
with double pedels: To gain power, strength and not being able to miss
would be playing single stroke rolls on the snare and bass: do R,L,R,L,R,L,R,L
with feet and hands. Then go in to R,L,R,R,L,R,L,L with feet and hands.
Gradually you'll be there in no time, keep practicing this for half-hour
a night until you'll realise you've got it and I mean "REALISE".
PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT (AND THE HANDS GAIN STRENGTH).